d he did not blunt it.
In the words of the text, "his heart was _tender_;" he acknowledged a
constraining force in the Divine voice within him--he heard and obeyed.
Though all the world had told him otherwise, he could not believe and
would not, that he might sin without offence--with impunity; that he
might be sensual, or cruel, after the manner of idolaters, and nothing
would come of it. And further, amid all the various worships offered
to his acceptance, this same inward sense of his, strengthened by
practice, unhesitatingly chose out the true one, the worship of the God
of Israel. It chose between the better and the worse, though it could
not have discovered the better of itself. Thus he was led right. In
his case was fulfilled the promise, "Who is among you that feareth the
Lord; that obeyeth the voice of His servant, that walketh in darkness,
and hath no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay
upon his God[9]." Or, in the Psalmist's words, "The fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do
His commandments[10]." Or (as he elsewhere expresses it), "I
understand more than the ancients, because I keep Thy precepts[11]."

Such was the beginning of Josiah's life. At sixteen he began to seek
after the God of his fathers; at twenty he commenced his reformation,
with a resolute faith and true-hearted generous devotion. From the
language of Scripture, it would seem, he began of _himself_; thus he is
left a pattern to all ages of prompt obedience for conscience' sake.
Jeremiah did not begin to prophesy till _after_ the king entered on his
reformation, as if the great prophet's call were delayed on purpose to
try the strength of Josiah's loyalty to his God, while his hands were
yet unaided by the exertions of others, or by the guidance of inspired
men.

What knowledge of God's dealings with his nation and of His revealed
purposes Josiah had at this time, we can only conjecture; from the
priests he might learn much generally, and from the popular belief.
The miraculous destruction of Sennacherib's army was not so long since,
and it proved to him God's especial protection of the Jewish people.
Manasseh's repentance was more recent still; and the Temple itself, and
its service, contained much doctrine to a religious mind, even apart
from the law or the prophets. But he had no accurate knowledge.

At twenty, then, he commenced his reformation. At first, not h